


The Last Ride

by DefinitionOfTheWordFangirl



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bravery, Brienne is the Best, Don't Examine This Too Closely, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, F/M, Feels, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hurt No Comfort, Illnesses, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jaime Feels, Medieval Medicine, My First Work in This Fandom, One True Pairing, Out of Character, Past Cersei Lannister/Jaime Lannister, Sad Ending, Strong Female Characters, What Have I Done, Working Out My Feelings Through Fic, greyscale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:40:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8340172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefinitionOfTheWordFangirl/pseuds/DefinitionOfTheWordFangirl
Summary: "For all the songs they have sung of the kingslayer's fearlessness, to think that a single glance from you could render me mute as well as a cripple. Yet you are the one person that I need to do right by, you who pulled me from the shadows time and time again."





	

He stood before her now, trembling in a manner she had never witnessed before. As he slowly drew the sleeve of his golden hand up, her heart gave a painful lurch within her chest. Brienne realised what she was about to see an instant before she saw it. He had been withdrawn for months, always hiding away in heavy cloaks, face growing more sallow and drawn as time progressed. She had convinced herself that her worries were unfounded, naïve fool that she was.

His flesh was grey and marbled, cracking to reveal blackened veins below the surface. Legend claimed his skin would be cold to the touch. Greyscale.  
 "The outside finally reflects the madness within." Jaime drawled, face twisted into a sardonic smirk. It was the kind of smile you could cut yourself on.  
Before she knew what she was doing, she was reaching for his arm, no coherent thoughts in her mind beyond comforting the Lannister lion before her. But it was wrenched out her reach before her fingers could brush against it.  
"Don't." His voice broke.  
"For all the songs they have sung of the kingslayer's fearlessness, to think that a single glance from you could render me mute as well as a cripple. Yet you are the one person that I need to do right by, you who pulled me from the shadows time and time again." He began to cry in earnest as some inner dam broke and the words began pouring forth.  
"I love you. I have loved you ever since I saw you in the pit in Harrenhal, beautiful and noble and fearless in the face of death, that garish pink dress torn and blood running down your neck." His eyes and tone were pleading with her, although she did not know what for.  
"I should have kissed you that night." He whispered, fists clenched at his side. Brienne was paralysed by emotion as she stood before the only  man to have ever called her beautiful in a tone that was not mocking. She wanted to speak, but what was there left to say?  
"I would have held you all night long. I would have made you feel loved, and kissed every frown from your face. I would have told you that the Sapphire Isles should have been named after your eyes. I will not demand that you return my affections, but my time is running short, and I've always been a selfish bastard."

  
Brienne spoke then, voicing the thought that had arisen unbidden so often in his presence. "I would die for you. It is a cruel truth, yet if I could take your pain and your sickness it is a cross that I would bear gladly. You're all there's ever been for me, all there ever could be..." He inhaled sharply, and her tone was unintentionally harsh as she uttered her final sentence. "How dare you doubt that."  
He stumbled then, pain or exhaustion or shock getting the better of him. The knight caught himself on the wooden table in the center of her chambers, lurching against it with a soft grunt. She could not hold back then, could not bear to see her lion cowed.  
"This is not how it ends, you hear me?"  
She gripped him by his good shoulder, pulling him upright. If she hurt him, he didn't show it.  
"You are a Lannister, a knight of the King's Guard, a warrior and my dearest friend. I will not see you waste away in this gold-gilded cage. Let us ride out, one last time!" She barely knew what she was saying, but as her voice rose, hoarse with emotion, she saw a fire kindled in his eyes. He strode forward, seeking his sword as a smile split his lips. He clasped the handle, raising it before him in a manner that was almost reverential.   
"Yes! They will not sing songs of final battle, but I'll be damned if I die like an old man in a cold bed. Let me fall under an open sky, with joy in my heart and a battle cry on my lips!" A fever sweat glistened on his forehead as he limped forward.  
The sight of him broke her heart for the thousandth time.

"Lead the way, oathkeeper."

Neither of them returned from that last ride.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/Kudos make my day! Tell me what you thought of this...


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